The doors of higher professional music education opened for jazz in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Every self-respecting academy, conservatory, and university offering high-level music education to international students, felt it was time to add a jazz department. 

Noticed in the IASJ, was that the co-existence of jazz and classical music departments in higher music education did not go without tensions, misunderstandings and quite often hostilities. It lasted to the turn of the century, until the first decade of the 21st century, that jazz departments were more or less tolerated and accepted as regular part of higher music education. In the second decade more cross-fertilization took place.

With the bachelor-master structure, introduced in Europe and elsewhere in the world, if not already existing, jazz research was introduced in higher music education. In retrospect, it is easy to understand that in the first stages of jazz research, the methodologies, and techniques were derived from the old ones in musicology. But it was not for long that friction was felt between 'classical' musicology and jazz research.

'Practice-based research' was introduced in the first two decades of the 20th century of higher music education. While the debate on what 'practice-based research' really is, in jazz education the notion of 'applied jazz research' was developed. While much of the 'practice-based research' in music still is modeled after historical models of musicology, 'applied jazz research' is taking new inroads to jazz research.

Simply put, 'applied jazz research' is the kind of research that has direct and immediate links and consequences for jazz performance and jazz education. Applied jazz research informs, supports and is integrated in the work of the performer and the educator in jazz.